{"id":566,"date":"2009-03-17T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/where-have-all-the-gardners-and-crowleys-gone\/"},"modified":"2009-03-17T13:59:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T13:59:00","slug":"where-have-all-the-gardners-and-crowleys-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/where-have-all-the-gardners-and-crowleys-gone.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Have All the Gardners and Crowleys Gone?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s the title of a WitchVox essay by Juniper<\/a>, a \u201chedgewitch\u201d from British Columbia. Her blog is here<\/a>. She asks:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are there no more Gardners and Crowleys?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are the women like Doreen Valiente and Janet Farrar and Dion Fortune in younger generations?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole essay for yourself<\/a>. It\u2019s a rant, but it\u2019s a thoughtful rant.<\/p>\n

In one respect I think she\u2019s wrong \u2013 I think there are some very good Pagan elders and writers out there. Isaac Bonewits<\/a> is both prolific and thoughtful, and Dianne Sylvan<\/a> (The Circle Within<\/a><\/em>) is one of the deeper young authors I\u2019ve read. But they don\u2019t have the reputation of Gardner et.al. because 1) Gardner and company were founders, and founders usually grow to mythic proportions after their passing, and 2) the new, good authors get drowned out by the sheer volume of fluff books on the shelf at Barnes & Noble.<\/p>\n

In another respect, though, she\u2019s right. She says we don\u2019t have outstanding elders and leaders because we haven\u2019t become outstanding elders and leaders ourselves. Here are some relevant quotes:<\/p>\n

There are no more Gardners and Crowleys because we are afraid. Afraid of controversy, afraid of not being politically correct, afraid of being judged, afraid of ourselves, afraid of what the neighbors might think.<\/p>\n

We study more than we practice and we think that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n

we have made paganism too commercial, too user friendly, too easy, too accessible. We are more comfortable with a clean, neat, organized, sterilized version of spirituality. We don\u2019t want something messy, sexy, nitty and gritty. We want something that matches the row upon row of identical pink stucco houses that litter suburbia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have to admit those quotes hit me right between the eyes. I want<\/em> to make Paganism more accessible and less scary. I want<\/em> to show the folks across the street that beneath the forms of our religion lies meaning every bit as helpful and valid as their own. And I freely (though not proudly) admit I\u2019m afraid of controversy, or at least of open conflict.<\/p>\n

Can you have both? Can you have a religion and a practice that pushes boundaries but doesn\u2019t threaten anyone? Religious history says you can\u2019t. Do something different and you upset apple carts and barbeque sacred cows \u2013 and people get defensive. Look at the Old Testament prophets, or the Civil Rights leaders of the 1960s, or the founders of Wicca \u2013 none were well-received by the mainstream.<\/p>\n

One of the things I\u2019ve felt called to be \u2013 and that I promised to be \u2013 is a Pagan scholar. Not someone like Ronald Hutton<\/a> who does mainstream scholarship on Pagan topics, but someone who does original research into contemporary Pagan theology and practice \u2013 someone who pushes the envelope of what we know, believe and do.<\/p>\n

If I can\u2019t do that safely, can I do it at all?<\/p>\n

This seems to be the week for difficult questions\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the title of a WitchVox essay by Juniper, a \u201chedgewitch\u201d from British Columbia. Her blog is here. She asks: \u201cWhy are there no more Gardners and Crowleys?\u201d \u201cWhere are the women like Doreen Valiente and Janet Farrar and Dion Fortune in younger generations?\u201d Read the whole essay for yourself. It\u2019s a rant, but it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Have All the Gardners and Crowleys Gone?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That\u2019s the title of a WitchVox essay by Juniper, a \u201chedgewitch\u201d from British Columbia. Her blog is here. 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